Wizard's Crown
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Wizard's Crown is a fantasy role-playing game in which the player creates a party of up to eight adventurers and takes them on a quest to retrieve a magical crown from a wizard named Tarmon, who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory five hundred years ago.

The game features tactical battles, during which the player navigates the party members in turns over the battlefield. Different weapons demonstrate unique characteristics; for example, spears can attack two squares away, flails ignore the enemy's shields, and axes have a chance of breaking them completely. Shields are used to defend against frontal attacks and those coming from whatever side the shield is equipped on. The player can opt to skip these details and have the battle proceed automatically.

Experience gained by characters is spent on skills, attributes and life points. Unlike in most comparable games, classes and their unique abilities are not assigned to the characters, but must instead be "bought" by using intelligence points. The classes are Thief, Ranger, Fighter, Priest and Sorcerer; any of those can be combined with another one for a single character.

Weapons can be imbued with various enhancements. Magical weapons inflict elemental damage (called "injuries" in the game); "Plus" weapons cause extra bleeding, which may affect the character's health, making him faint; "Life Blast" weapons can kill a character in such a way that he cannot be resurrected afterwards.

Trivia

This game is quite flexible in terms of character creation, particularly in the area of character classes. In essence, you can multi-class your characters as much as you'd like (keeping in mind that this will cause slower development). It would be possible for you to design a character as a Warrior-Priest-Ranger-Wizard-Thief... if you had the patience for it!

This game has a neat feature that allows you to reset any of the dungeon levels. In essence, you can keep one set of characters playing in the game forever, if you're that patient.

This is known to be the game that had the tactical combat engine that was later tweaked into Pool of Radiance.

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Description from the packaging:

Perilous quest for a stolen crown
...the stolen Crown of the Emperor- bestower of knowledge and wisdom upon the Fellowship of Wizards who once ruled in Arghan. Usurped by the traitor Tarmon, Wizard of Thunder, the Crown lies imprisoned behind spellwoven walls in the shattered ruins of the once splendid city. Now eight fearless adventurers dare the perils of the cursed domain. Their quest- to wrest the Crown from captivity and restore it to its rightful bearer.
Guide this valiant band on its perilous mission in Wizards Crown, a multiple-character role-playing game. It stands out above the crowd by combining the detailed tactical battles of war gaming with the magic and mystery of a fantasy quest.

Eight pre-made characters await your orders, or you can create your own. Make them sorcerers, priests, fighters, rangers, or thieves. Endow your heroes with strength, dexterity, intelligence and other personal attributes. Arm them with a variety of weapons and skills such as magic, stealth, and healing. Then command them in encounters with the fearsome denizens of Arghan, including monsters, wraiths and the undead. Guide the companions through a maze of streets, buildings and dungeons, searching for clues to the ancient hiding place of the coveted crown.
When fighting starts, you can let the computer resolve it quickly or you can personally direct it with a multitude of combat options. Challenge yourself at any of five levels of play. Capture, find or trade a nearly limitless number of magic items to increase your chances of fulfilling the quest and claiming the promised prize- a reward of great enchantment.

At the inn, you can see the characters for hire and the various options available to you.
View the skill display of a pre-made character. You can also create your own.
View a character's status and inventory.
Explore the grasslands around the town near the ruins of Arghan.
Engage in a tactical battle with thieves.
Individually create a party of eight adventurers.
Choose from five character classes.
Play either a quick resolution combat game or a detailed tactical game that provides for realistic combat with monsters.

Select from a nearly infinite number of magic items such as lightning swords and rings of invincibility.
Conjure up one of 22 spells that can shatter and paralyze the enemy!
Explore a town, dungeons, and ancient ruins.
Wizard's Crown was designed by Paul Murray and Keith Brors. Paul Murray also designed The Cosmic Balance and Imperium Galactum.
Playing time: 50 to 100 hours.
Intermediate level.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/wizards-crown
